Late to Gustavo Dudamel Mania

Posted by Myrna the Minx on February 17, 2008 | Comments (2) | Trackbacks (0)

The 60 Minutes piece tonight on Venezuelan conductor wonder Gustavo Dudamel was fantastic. I found myself tearing up over his obvious joy and passion. I felt the same way I did during the scene at the end of Immortal Beloved when “Ode to Joy” plays as the audience gazes at Ludwig van Beethoven allowing himself to be consumed by a vision of the infinite—overwhelmed by a composer/musician’s ability to convey emotion. But even more wonderful is Dudamel’s desire to import Venezuela’s music education program, El Sistema, to the youth of Los Angeles. And can you imagine what it must be like to go to work every day at Disney Hall? The L.A. Philharmonic has certainly engineered another coup–this time of still unimaginable proportions. Wow.

For you opera fans, Ovation TV (my new favorite television station) has been airing the Canadian show Bathroom Divas–a terrific reality show in which aspiring opera singers compete to attend an opera bootcamp and the chance to sing with the Toronto Philharmonic.

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Years later and this stupid picture still gives me the willies.

Comment by Kvatch on February 18, 2008 @ 7:00 pm

Great post, Myrna. Regardless of one’s opinions of Chavista Venezuela (or of previous adminstrations, for that matter), El Sistema shows what music education can do. It would be great if somethig along those lines could happen here, but you just know that no government would support it.

And is it just me, or while I was watching that video, I found myself half expecting Dudamel to suddenly yell “Bam”?

Comment by force_ten on February 19, 2008 @ 6:04 am

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